Our friendly global demeanor seems to be paying off today. Canadian markets rose today, but American markets were knocked around after CNN reported that U.S. forces in the gulf are on a “heightened alert.” That sent the U.S. indexes spinning and the price of oil up.

At the end of the day, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 1.03%, ending up at 10605. The NASDAQ composite index fell 1.16% to 2035 and the S&P 500 slipped 1% to 1225.

The TSE, on the other hand, spiked downward several times today, but recovered every time to close up 33 points at 7740.

Among the sectors, market trend was slightly positive with seven sectors moving up, six down and the communications and media subsector closing unchanged.

The industrial products sector made the biggest advance of the day, moving up 1.8% on a slight recovery in Nortel, which closed up 74¢ at $13.50. C-Mac also rose, gaining 65¢ to close at $35.15. Celestica gained $1.70 to close at $67.00.

Those gains were enough to offset a 8.7% drop in the price of itemus and a 5% loss on the price of RIM shares.
JDS found some buyers today, gaining over 10% to close up at $19.65.

Bovar Inc. is suddenly the darling of the TSE. The company which supplies air and water quality monitoring services for the Malaysian government, among others, announced it will begin paying a dividend out of its significant cash reserves.
The company made the announcement last night shortly after the close and investors were lined up this morning. Trading in the stock was halted for a time today. By the final bell, Bovar was up 42% after almost three million shares traded. It was fifth most heavily traded issue on the day.

Even though the TSE was ahead on the day, market trend among individual issues was negative with 571 declining and only 486 issues advancing. Volume was relatively light at 143 million shares.

The CDNX finished up 15 points today to close at 3257. That was on low volume of 35 million shares. Market trend was slightly positive with 211 issues advancing and 202 declining.

The Canadian dollar backed off its yesterdayÕs big advance slightly this afternoon to close down 0.08% at US65.57¢.